Open & Shutt.....My Story

Hillsong, Hershey, Hooks, Happy Valley, and Hot Stove

2009-11-05T20:28:00.004-05:00

Wednesday night, Beth and I went outside our normal routine and actually went to the movie theater. It was a special event as Hillsong United (a musical group that started as a youth praise band at a church in Sydney Australia) had a live feed and video that they produced. We didn't know exactly what to expect. We were thinking it was a concert much like we've seen on some of their concert DVD's. However, it wasn't exactly that.

The first half hour was actually LIVE--7:30pm our time and 11:30 am the next day in Sydney. I'm not sure how they did a live thing like that in the theater, but I guess if you have a projector, computer, and internet connection you could do it. Anyway, they did a couple of live acoustic songs and played two of their newer video songs. Then, they introduced the movie about their tours over the last four years. Again, I'm expecting a documentary of their concerts and more great music. What it ended up being was a two hour presentation of all the injustice and hurt that they observed on every continent. They people living in shacks in Brazil, refugee camps in Africa, and many other sad situations. It was a call to action. We sponsor a child in Peru, but it makes you think what more can you do? It wasn't exactly what we went for, but it was pretty moving. They did sneak in some concert footage, so we got some of that also.

Saturday, I'm off to Hershey for the State track meet. We've only got one guy competing, but he's got a shot of finishing pretty high, so that should be exciting to see where he stacks up with the rest of the state.

From there, I'm swinging by Elizabethtown--about 10 miles down route 743 from Hershey. That's where I started my 8+ year college journey (don't worry--that's not just for undergraduate). I haven't been back there in four or five years and I figure I should stop by so I actually know what I'm talking about when I'm at College Fairs telling kids about the campus. Also, my best man from my wedding (J) and family live in Etown, so we're going to hang out for the afternoon. It should be a great day!

Also, PSU's got a BIG game against THE Ohio State University. Terrelle Prior's first trip to Penn State since his recruiting visit. He hasn't been having that great of a season....and I hope PSU's defense keeps it that way. I've got my list of Penn State Radio Network stations ready for the drive home from Etown. It'll be something like Carlisle, Bedford, Somerset, and Pittsburgh.....I hope. I didn't have as much success for the Northwestern game on our drive up to PSU last weekend. But, as long as they score 3 TD's in a 4-minute span, I don't have to listen ever!!!!

Finally, the Hot Stove League (baseball's off-season). The Pirates made a trade that actually is geared to help the team for 2010....rather than 2015! They gave up Jesse Chavez--a decent reliever this past year, but one of three or four that fit that same mold. They picked up a starting second baseman that's going to probably hit #2. He's a lefty hitter, patient at the plate, can steal bases, and a good defender. I think it's at least comparable, if not better than having Freddy Sanchez hitting 2nd behind Andrew McCutchen. I don't expect many more off-season acquisitions of starting pieces, but we'll see. I'm excited to see what people like Millege, Jones, Clement, and others do before Alvarez and Tabata come up in June or July. We shall see........at least give me something close to .500 this year!!!!

....and, keeping with the 'H' theme, Halloween. Poor Roxy! This may border on animal cruelty, but it's so funny and cute at the same time for us. Plus it distracts Roxy from barking at all of the kids coming to the door for candy.

Since last week...

2009-11-01T19:23:00.005-05:00

Since the half marathon, there's been a lot of cross country goings-on.

For the high school team, we had Tri-States (a tune-up meet) and WPIAL's (Districts). The results were a little below where we usually are as a team, but you have days like that. At WPIAL's, the guys finished 5th as a team (only four go to states). Our top runner finished 2nd and our #2 runner was the first individual not to qualify for states. But you learn from it and move on. The state meet is this upcoming weekend in Hershey. I'm excited because I think I'm going to swing by Elizabethtown after the races to check out the campus and catch up with my best bud (and best man) J and family who I haven't seen in forever.

This weekend, we were up at PSU for the Big Ten Cross Country Championships. Beth and I hadn't been up there in a few years (except for me going up a few weeks ago for the football game). It was great, Beth had a chance to catch up with the coaches the night before at the alumni gathering and I ended up having my name drawn during a raffle for a sweet PSU Track & Field Long Sleeve Half-Zip something or other.....see the picture.

As far as the actual race day, it was a beautiful day. Sunny with just a few small clouds, high 40's, and no wind. It was so nice I decided to wear shorts to watch the races. Before the races, Beth and I got our long runs in on the golf course. We ran the courses....sort of. We had trouble following the lines. Fortunately the racers didn't have the same issue. The end result of the meet was that the PSU men had a tough day, but the PSU women were Big Ten Champs and PSU's #1 runner won the individual championship.

After the races, we walked around on College Avenue to get lunch and then, of course, had to make our first stop to the NEW Creamery. My Apple Cobbler ice cream did not disappoint!

Three more weeks until the marathon. It's getting close! If I could request weather, today at PSU would work nicely. Of course, as we're loading up the car to leave for Penn State yesterday, I get too close to the edge of our front sidewalk, slip off, and tweak my ankle. Fortunately, I caught it before it bent too far, so I was fine to run today. But, of course, I'll start entering my hypochondria state in the upcoming weeks as the marathon draws near....

The Pose

2009-10-25T13:33:00.008-04:00

Remember when Desmond Howard emulated the pose of the Heisman Trophy statue after a big play against Ohio State?

Well, apparently the Shutts strike the same pose when crossing the finish line. Check out my finish photo from the race last weekend compared to Beth's from the Best of the US last October.

We're always going for the watch to get that accurate time and have a painful look on the face at the finish!

Here's a few more photos that can be found from the race set at http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/7842443_37m3w#691618777_bEQhv

Pre-race warm-up for Beth, Karen, and I (JT's saving his bullets for the race)

Starting out the race near the front

Kicking it in to the finish. I always seem to put my head down for a stride or two when I'm trying to dig a little deeper. Not too great of form from a physical standpoint, but mentally it helps me.

Buffalo Creek 1/2 Marathon RR

2009-10-17T21:05:00.003-04:00

Another fine day along Buffalo Creek in Freeport.

The weather could have been a tad bit warmer, but it didn't rain and ended up in the high 30's. And, just in case Jen Harrison checks this out--no the snow was more in the center of the state by State College. This year Beth was running also as a tuneup for Clearwater and my cousin K and her dad came along and ran also.

We had this elaborate logistical plan of positioning of cars since this is a point-to-point race. It involved three cars--we leave two (one for Beth & I; one for K & UJ) at the finish line so we didn't have to ride the shuttle back. Then we all head up in one car up to the packet pickup and start. We had to figure out what bags to put in what car and what keys needed to be carried during the race and what bags to drop off, but it all worked out smoothly.

To the race, I've been happy with my training all fall balancing with the XC guys, Beth, and my own long runs. Last weekend, I averaged under 6:30 pace for a 14-mile segment of a 17-mile run and felt like I had some left. So, I figured I'd try to better my 6:00 pace from last year's half and see what happened. We all warmed up together and had some nice conversation catching up on K and her life. A couple pit stops and a couple striders later and it was time for the race.

Having done it last year, I knew the course layout and the level of the field. I was 11th last year and figured I could sneak in to the top 10 this year having the marathon training base underneath me. Off we go and I was 9th or so a mile in to the race. Last year, our places from the first mile were just about the same as we finished so I figured I just needed to settle in and hit my splits.

This is a downhill point-to-point course, so that definitely skews the splits some. At the same time, the majority is on a crushed limestone rails-to-trails course, so that neutralizes some of it (but it's still pretty fast!!). Mile 1 I'm out in 5:28 and rolling. Here's the rest of the splits and some commentary:

Mile 2 - 6:04 (the only real uphill in the race)
Mile 3 - 5:44
Mile 4 - 5:41
Mile 5 - 5:44
Mile 6 - 5:46
Mile 7 - 5:51
Mile 8 - 5:50
Mile 9 - 5:54
Mile 10 - 5:58
Mile 11 - 5:54
Mile 12 - 6:02
Mile 13 - 6:00
13.1 - 0:35
Total 1:16:32 - 5:50 pace - (1:19:06 last year)

From about 1.5 miles in until 10 miles in, I was running side-by-side with another guy (last year I was in a pack of 5) and we just steadily worked our way up, picking off one person around mile 6 and one around 8. I was feeling good, but didn't know what I had left hitting these 5:50's, but I just tried to hang with the guy beside me.

We closed in on the 3rd place guy around mile 10 and I could tell my running partner was breathing pretty hard. We had just caught said 3rd place, so that guy probably was losing some. All of the sudden, I shifted my entire mindset to just clicking off miles to actually RACING. This hasn't happened for years if you don't count trying to outkick people on the homestretch of races. I thought, "Okay. 2.5 miles to go. I feel good, let's surge and see if they go with me." Surge happens and they didn't respond. Hmmm....

I hit the 11 mile marker and just hit my watch to get the split but don't even look at the time since I'm now racing vs just hitting times. There are some curves in the trail since it goes along a creek, so I even tried to put in a few surges around turns. All those HS XC strategies were coming back to me! Since Beth and I train on the trail almost every weekend, I knew the remainder of the course pretty well and I started mapping out the strategic places to sneak in some surges.....actually I'd like to think that but I was time-wise probably just running as hard as I could and running scared so they wouldn't catch up to me.......

What the heck--I was in 3rd place with just a little more to go! I get to about a 1/2 mile left on the trail (1.5 miles left in the race) and I knew the trail changed from the crushed limestone to blacktop, so I put on another surge (at least in my head). I pass the 12 mile mark and just hit the watch and get ready to leave the trail for the final 0.8-ish on roads to the finish. There was an uphill switchback to a bridge and then into town.

I was mapping out my final surge strategy up this hill when I see this guy jogging back towards me with his hands up in the air. It was the 2nd place guy and he missed the switchback off of the trail and had to come back. He yelled out, "Where to we go?" I said back (out of breath), "Up the hill and over the bridge in to town." Now, he's 50 yards behind me. So, I'm in 2nd place (in sort of a cheap way). I felt bad that he didn't make the turn (last year they had a person at the turn) and had my mind made up that I'd slow up at the finish since he earned 2nd but just got off course (after the race, he said he lost more than 30 seconds there).

But, no worries as he flew past me with about 800m left. He happens to be one of the better runners in the Pittsburgh area after all. I follow him down the hill, we make a left turn at the 13.0 mark, I look over my shoulder and see that the other two guys (the former 3rd place and the guy I ran most of the race with) were too far back to get me. I split my watch at 13 and then just focused on kicking it in as best as I could and cross at 1:16:32--a 2.5 minute improvement over last year!!! And, as Beth's triathlon posse would say, a 'podium' finish--third place. Wooo hooo!

And, it was a good day all around. Beth beat her PR in the 1/2 marathon by 3:15 and was the 2nd female. My cousin ran well and won her age group and finished 5th or 6th female OA. My uncle, coming off of sickness and injury issues, almost equalled his 1/2 marathon time from Pittsburgh.

After the race, some bagels, Eat'n Park Smiley Cookies, Pizza, bananas, and other stuff to refuel as Beth and I then go over to the YMCA to swim since Beth had a workout to get in (those crazy triathletes!!!). She did a real workout. I just meandered back and forth doing slow laps except for being a rabbit for the 2nd 25 on a couple of Beth's 50yd repeats.

A stop by GetGo for a footlong for lunch, pick up the car, a PSU shoutout win (great job, defense!!), house clean, and now it's time for bed. Good day, indeed!

PSU, Cold Weather, and Half Marathon

2009-10-15T19:42:00.007-04:00

That's what's going on right now....

Last weekend, I went up with my college buddy (and fellow IE graduate) B as he had tickets to the BIG Penn State-Eastern Illinois matchup........okay, not too big. Eastern Illinois is a 1-AA team and people outside were trying to give away tickets. And, as evidenced by the picture below when JoePa led the team onto the field, the student section wasn't all that enthused about arriving punctually to a noon start against an inferior opponent. PSU won 52-3 and it was about that close. PSU did pretty much whatever they wanted. Right before halftime, EIU was actually driving down to about the 10, but Navarro Bowman picked up a fumble and ran it back in a James Harrison-like play for 90 yards an a touchdown. Game over even though it wasn't even halftime.

Nevertheless, it was a great experience being back up in Happy Valley. I sent a message to Beth at one point after I did a short run on the PSU golf course (site of the XC Big Ten Championships in a few weeks) and past my old apartment that I was just going to stay up there and that I'd see her at the end of October when she came up for the XC meet.

One of the neat things about my friend B is he's involved in different things. First of all, he's one smart dude as he got his PhD in IE from PSU. Secondly, he tries new things. He told me a few years back that he signed up for a standup comedy class. I thought he was kidding, but he actually did a few local shows.

He also told me he was experimenting with growing square watermelons. SQUARE watermelons? That's what he said. He told me over the weekend that this past summer he experimented with seedless, HUGE barrel, and other types of watermelons. He brought a few with him that Beth and I had (they were great!) and of course Roxy was very intrigued by the whole watermelon thing.

On Tuesday, I helped out with my second college fair of the fall. This was up in the North Hills at LaRoche College. There was some registration snafu's so we weren't in the E's by Edinboro, but rather way in the back. We're in the back row kind of in the middle of the picture with the blue tablecloth. Still a good time, but people are much more in a hurry to get out of there by the time they get to the last few tables.

I say 'we' because I found a fellow Etown-er in the Pittsburgh area willing to give up a night and share about Etown. Beth and I met TF back in March at the Spring Thaw. That was my DNS race due to the ankle injury playing basketball. Since I wasn't racing, I was hanging around the finish line while Beth was out there and these two parent-age people came up to me and commented about the Etown Hoodie I was wearing. They said that their daughter went to Etown and ran there. Small world! So, long story short, I recruited a new alumni to come to the college fair and hopefully this will DOUBLE the coverage of the Pittsburgh area for college fairs by Etown alumni (since 2 is twice as big as 1) in the future.

This weekend is the Buffalo Creek Half Marathon. I'm going to have to get my game face on as I haven't raced since Memorial Day. Last year's race went really well for me (at least for the first 9 or 10 miles) and I somehow maintained 6:00 pace. I'm shooting to go slightly below that considering I actually have a distance base underneath me with the marathon training. The hindering factor may be the weather--mid 30's with a chance of snow or rain. Ugh! But, that may be what it's like next month in Philly so I better get ready for it.

Beth's running this year as a tuneup for the Half IM World Championships in Clearwater and my cousin K's coming back again this year (won her age group) and her dad (who I ran the Pittsburgh half with last spring) are coming to run, too.

Fun week....fun fall!

2009-10-09T19:59:00.012-04:00

Last Sunday, Beth and I were invited to go to our first ever Steeler game. I'm a big fan and watch just about every game on TV or listen on the radio, but I've never had a connection to get a ticket (and assumed I never would). However, Beth's good friend was able to get four tickets to the game and it was great! It was great weather and the Steelers took it to the Chargers to go up 28-0 early in the third quarter. This was our previously agreed upon time to leave since we all had to get up for work the next morning (AND K & T are from the other side of Altoona). It was a little nerve-racking to hear how close it got in the end, but a fun game nonetheless.

Our seats were in the next to last row, right on the goal line where the Steelers scored three of their touchdowns. In the row behind us were about 10 or so San Diego Chargers fans (of course the only tickets they could score were in the last row!). I actually didn't mind being up that high--you were able to see so much more than you do on TV. You were able to see players get wide open on passing plays and I kept screaming and pointing, "throw it to him--he's WIDE open!!!"

One place where Beth and I fall short of being true members of Steelers Nation is that we don't have Steelers jerseys. I think about 95-98% of the crowd did have jerseys. At least I had a Steelers hoodie.....albeit a 2005 AFC Champions hoody--even though they went on to win the Super Bowl. Hey, it was cheap at Dick's Sporting Goods a month after they won back then since they had all the Super Bowl merchandise.

Poor Beth had a black Powerbar coat with a PURPLE hoodie underneath. It sure got a few facebook comments during the game!!! She did get a Terrible Towel from a vendor before we crossed over the Clemente Bridge.

Now if this wasn't great enough, I also have lined up for tomorrow a trip up to Happy Valley! My one good friend from my IE days at PSU, B, asked me a month or two ago if I wanted to go to this game because he had two tickets. Granted, it's against 1-AA Eastern Illinois, but it's still the experience of being up there. So, after my first EVER Steeler game, I'm going to my first PSU game since college six days later. Awesome!

The one down side to all of this is that it's making for a very full fall. As Beth and I were debating of whether or not to go to the Steelers game, we were seeing the weekends fill up and realized that Thanksgiving is going to be here before we knew it. I know we've all got busy lives, but I figured I'd throw this out there, so just humor me:

Sep 23: College Fair for Etown at WCCC and drop off the dog at parent's house
Sep 25-28: BOUS for Beth in California
Oct 4: Steelers game
Oct 10: PSU game
Oct 13: LaRoche College Fair for Etown
Oct 17: Buffalo Creek Half Marathon (both of us) just up the road in Freeport
Nothing the weekend of the 24th.....yet
Nov 1: Big Tens XC Championship at PSU (going up Saturday and watching Sunday)
Nov 7: PIAA XC meet in Hershey (maybe we'll have boys & girls both there)
Nov 12-15: IM 70.3 Championships in Clearwater for Beth
Nov 22: Philly Marathon for me
Nov 25: Thanksgiving and eating a lot and taking a deep breath!!!!

Overall, my training's going pretty well. I was pumped with last Thursday doing a 15x400 workout with the XC boys (88 sec down to 73) and then coming home and doing a 9 or 10 mile tempo workout with Beth. I felt pretty good during it, but it sure beat me up for the next few days.

I got home from the Saturday invite at Central Catholic and it was so beautiful out and Beth left me a message that she wasn't going to be home from her bike ride for another two hours. So, I got my bike ready and headed out for an hour ride because I figured it may be the last time I ride outside this year. It was so nice out and I felt great. So, I got home with about another 30-45 minutes until Beth got home and then was going to do her 30 minute brick run. I figured I'd do that with her, so I just caught the end of the exciting Michigan-MSU overtime game while waiting for her to get home.

We go out for our run and I'm chatting up a storm about our guy winning the CCI by outkicking a guy from the big rival and telling her about the Michigan-MSU, VT-Duke, and a couple other games. Then, we turn around and come back and we're about 20 minutes into the run and.......BONK! I had to slow down to a walk. I took in food after the invite and with my bike ride, but apparently not enough. It was a brutal shuffle that last mile-plus home for me and a good lesson in training nutrition.

But, I bounced back and had a good long run on Sunday and today PR-ed in the 2 mile during a track workout with the XC boys. They are so fast! I was killing myself to run 80's each lap to pace my group while the top group was just cruising and clicking them off. THEY then did a sub-5:00 mile and sub-2:25 800, but I opted out of those and did some distance since my marathon prescription for Sunday is 17 miles with 14 at race pace. I needed to save something.

So, off to Happy Valley tomorrow and then another fun week ahead. Next thing you know, we'll be off to Florida and then I'll be running my marathon and then eating a whole bunch of turkey and fixin's four days later!

Back home...

2009-09-30T19:48:00.010-04:00

The trip to California was a success as Beth did great at the BOUS competition. She finished 4th and you can read all about it in her race report on her blog.

To pick up where I left off on the last blog entry, my flight was delayed in Pittsburgh. It turns out that there was a mechanical problem and they had to change planes. So, the time got pushed back from 5:00 to 5:30 to 5:50 (flight crew also got caught up in the rolling closures on the parkway west) and then we finally were all loaded on the plane around 6:10. We're all seated and ready to back out when I see out the window the little guy with the earmuffs and flashlights put up a big 'x' with his flashlights. Bummer--that can't be good. The pilot comes on and says that President Obama is taking off and all planes are grounded for the next 5 minutes......which turned in to 20 minutes.

So, I get some grading and reading done on the plane and I land in Dallas with about 25 minutes to spare. Unfortunately it was about 9:05 pm local time and all the eateries were closed! Bummer. No hot food. I had to settle for some of the granola bars and power bars I packed. At least the Auntie Anne's pretzel stand still had a few pretzels!

Back in the air a half hour later an the plane had the movie 'The Proposal' with Sandra Bullock. It was pretty funny and made the time go by pretty quick. Next thing you know, Beth and her mom picked me up at the airport and we got back to the hotel and in bed by about midnight (3:00 am eastern) making for a 23-hour day.

We slept in until 7am, had an AWESOME breakfast at the hotel and did the pre-race routine of Beth bike/run/swim. My job during that was to jog the run course and report back since it was mostly on trails and we couldn't drive it. So, I jog up the 2-ish miles from T1 to T2 and start running the course and I'm loving it--a gradual downhill for the first two miles (split sub-7:00's without pushing it). Around 2.5 miles in, the directions (which I had on a map in my pocket and written the highlights of on my hand) said to cut through this park and go up a hill. So, I cut through the park and then find a gate that locked with a padlock and chains. I didn't really know what was on the other side of it, so I didn't want to hop the fence. I figured I'd go around it, but pretty much backtracked 2 of the 2.5 miles and decided at that point to just head straight to the finish so Beth and her mom didn't think I got lost or eaten by a coyote. (We ended up being able to drive a lot of it before dinner anyway, so no big deal).

After the BOUS meeting and dinner at Olive Garden (3 rounds of the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl which I paid for Sunday morning before the race). We went back, watched the PSU-Iowa game (ugh!!) and retired before the 4am wakeup call Sunday morning. I've commented a few times how wakeup calls in time zones west of PA seem to be so much easier, but they really are. And, from what I hear, the converse is equally difficult. I haven't seen data this year, but last year in the NFL teams from the west had some terrible record when they had to play a 1pm game in the Eastern Time Zone. Speaking of terrible records, I read a stat that before today the number of Pirates road wins since the All-Star break: three. Ugh! Thank goodness Jen Harrison's Cubbies were nice enough to let them win this afternoon.

Beth swam (really fast) and left on her bike 8th. I knew I had an hour to kill until she got to T2, so I jogged up there and then continued just past T2 to the Saddleback Church campus. And it truly is a CAMPUS--it took me a good 8 or so minutes to jog the perimeter.

It was a little before 8am and none of the THREE services (traditional, praise, and 'overdrive') started until 9:00am. However, in two of the 'tents' I could hear them warming up and just listened from the outside and even poked my head in for about 5 minutes. It was great music with electric guitars, drums, and a great message. I could have stayed there all morning. However, all the time they were probably thinking, "Who's this weirdo in bright yellow and headphones hanging out in the back of the room while we're warming up?" Oh well.

Said weirdo with bright yellow shirt (a must for a true spectathlete so the triathlete can pick you out)

Senior Pastor Rick Warren's Parking Spot at Saddle Back. If the name sounds familiar, he's the author of "The Purpose Driven Life" and several follow-up books. I heard somewhere that it's been so successful that he and his wife now do 'reverse tithing' which means that they give to the church or ministries 90% of their money and keep the 10%. That's cool! One other thing was that they had a road leading into the church called 'Purpose Drive.' I find humor in wording like that!

So (back to the race) I leave the campus and head back over to T2 and see PA's male representative, Brian Duffy, come out first. I figured this was some good motivation to pass along to Beth since there was a state team title. For the women, out comes the first female who I didn't know (turned out to be a neat person who's a Christian named Bethany from Oklahoma), then Cindi B, Alice H, and Beth (All of which I then posted to Facebook before heading to my next cheering point to keep Marit and others updated)

This is Beth climbing a hill around 4.5 miles in to the run. Kimberly from Washington (a crazy-fast runner) had passed Cindi and Beth, but Beth had passed Alice so she was still 4th. Beth and Brian ended up losing the State title to Cindi and the Wisconsin Cheeseheads by 23 seconds. We were joking afterwards that I should have told Cindi (who had a 2-3 minute lead on Beth), "You've got 3rd wrapped up. Go ahead an slow down and save it for Kona in a few weeks." But, no, my coaching instincts wouldn't allow me to do that as I'm telling her good job and to drive her arms and keep the eyes up and to finish strong. Oh well.

This is Beth under the PA flag after the race. The wind wouldn't cooperate, so you can't see the flag too well.

Finally, big thanks to Jerry MacNeil (and wife Trudy) for putting on such a neat event. I know Beth loves it, I really enjoy the concept and going to it and I hope it continues to grow. I know Beth has made some good friends (and being the groupie that I am, I pick up friends, too!)

On the flight home, we had some crazy people in the row behind us with two cats. They were just weird! Our layover in Chicago was short and we were back in (now chilly!!!) Pittsburgh around 6pm. We picked up the dog, unpacked and went to bed and started the school week.

Training-wise, I snuck in 8 miles on Saturday morning (checking out the course) and estimated 5+ on Sunday during the race, so I'll take it. Back to serious running this week and gearing up for the big marathon in November.

The time from now until Thanksgiving has something going on just about every weekend (including two football games, three competing races, 4 big coaching/spectating races, and a college fair) but that's a whole other post in itself.

Heading West

2009-09-25T16:46:00.004-04:00

I'm at the airport waiting for my flight to leave for Dallas (and then on to California). From what I understand, getting here in itself was a pretty good accomplishment with the 'rolling closures' of the Parkway West with all the International Leaders leaving the G20 Summit. I could see state trooper cars at each on & off ramp ready to shut things down when people came through.My flight was originally scheduled for 5:00, now it's backed up to 5:50. I had a 2.5 hour layover in Dallas, so I'm not too worried yet. But, another hour delay and I'll be worried. I'll have to update this with any major changes. Just for the record, Beth and I scheduled our flights back in June. The G20 wasn't announced until July. President Obama should have checked with Beth and I and the BOUS race before setting up the meetings here it Pittsburgh!

She's competing in the Best of the US race where one male and female from each state compete. It's a fun head-to-head competition that goes across all age groups. We did our normal routine for this trip and it goes something like this:

*I drop off the dog the day before (except this time it was Wednesday because I was at a College Fair)
*We pack the bags and bikes the night before
*Drop off Beth at the airport before school (school's about 20 min away)
*I go to school and teach while Beth's at the race location getting organized and putting the bike together
*Leave after school back for the airport and fly out (usually with grading or a book to kill the time)
*Beth comes to the airport and picks me up

These California ones are a little bit trickier in that I'm arriving at 10:30pm California time (which is 1:30am!!). This is especially long since we got up at 4am to get out to the airport for Beth's flight. I hope Beth and her mom don't fall asleep and forget about me! I'm looking forward to this race as Beth competed in it last year. I was really impressed with how the put it on and the pre-race meeting and how state-oriented it was. It gave you pride in Pennsylvania. Beth's PA teammate is pretty good so hopefully the equal or better the #3 state finish from last year.

Back on Wednesday, I dropped the dog off a day early because I was helping out at a college fair representing Elizabethtown College. With it being a smaller school (1900 students) they recruit alumni to serve as representatives at fairs to get more reach at more places. I really enjoy it. It's an easy sales pitch for me. I always tell the people there that I liked it so much, I convinced my sister to go there also and follow me in engineering.

My pitch line to the people who wander around is "Have you heard of Elizabethtown College?" And if they haven't, I follow-up with, "Have you been to HersheyPark? It's 10 minutes down the road and we loved going up for visits on the weekend for chocolate!!!" Then I go on about the great programs, the small class sizes, and the personal touch of the small school.

Well, that's about it. I heard the people at the airline desk say the airplane should be here at 5:30, so we should be out of here around 6pm. I'll try to sneak in a turn or two on Facebook Scrabble. See you in California!

Catalytic Converters and Monroeville

2009-09-21T20:27:00.004-04:00

Over the last two weeks our (newer - 2007) car was starting to run pretty loud. We couldn't quite pinpoint the exact issue, but knew that (in spite of it still keeping its great 31-32 mpg) there was something wrong. We were worried as it was getting louder by the day/week.

So, what to do? The normal routine is to drop off the Saturn at the dealership that's about 2 miles from my school. I take in clothes and food the day before and just jog up after dropping it off in the morning. Then, after practice, I jog back over and pick up the car. This works most times for both the Saturn and the VW (just a block down the road).

However, we have had some snafus. Like the time they had know clue about the Saturn Car Care plan or the time the VW people never read my note that said to call Beth because I couldn't get to my phone and I show up at 5:30pm all sweaty at the dealership and they were still waiting for our permission to start the work.

So......with this being a potential big issue, we wanted to take it back to the original dealership in Monroeville since we bought it there (and if there was any warranty issues). The problem with this is that Monroeville isn't on the way to work for either of us. Fortunately, a fellow teacher comes to school this way so I was able to hitch a ride with her. The only issue was that it was this cracked catalytic converter that they didn't have in stock had to be replaced. So, they couldn't repair it until Saturday. So.......plan B was fortunately okay in that I got dropped off in Oakland after work and went home with Beth.

This put us one car down for Saturday and we had to go down to Monroeville to pick it up at some point. We were able to work it out in the morning--Beth used the car to go swimming and then I drove out to Ohio for the team's XC race. Our guy finished 2nd--gave a solid effort, but got passed with about 400m to go. On the way back, I was able to listen to the PSU game (decent effort on defense, but offense still has some question marks).

Then, I went home and Beth and I spent our evening in Monroeville. First, we went back to the Cornerstone Church in Export (great music and message about putting family #1). Then, off to Boston Market (who by the way has a free meal for teachers in September w/ the purchase of a meal), Sam's Club, and picking up the car. We were just crossing things off the list left and right.

And, by virtue of going to church Saturday night, we slept in on Sunday. Beth got up earlier, but I don't think I rolled out of bed until after 8am. On to Sunday where I had my run. With the upcoming weekend of travelling to California, we figured the 20-miler wouldn't fit too well into the race weekend, so I flip-flopped my training weekends and just have 13 for next weekend. It went well, but I felt pretty sluggish today. It may have something to do with my last three weekends have been 20 miles, 16 miles w/ 12 at race pace, and 20 miles. I'm hoping the upcoming week of lower mileage will help me recover some.

Why the lower mileage? Well, the travelling to California this weekend of course cuts in to it. We've got a big XC meet for the section title Tuesday (so no real running for me other than spectathlete-ing). Finally, on Wednesday, I'm going to a college fair to serve as an alumni rep for Elizabethtown College. I enjoy sharing my stories (and my younger sister's) about Etown with the high schoolers.

So, busy week and the a fun weekend to watch Beth race this weekend. Cool BOUS preview talking about Beth here: http://minnesotatrinews.blogspot.com/2009/09/top-5-state-teams-at-best-of-us.html

Okay, my favorite non-sports show is coming on--the Big Bang Theory. Look for a blog this weekend about the trip.

Lovely Weather!

2009-09-15T19:27:00.006-04:00

I can handle this weather--highs in the high 70's and lows in the mid 50's. This is super! Can we arrange it to stick around until April?

What does one do with this weather? Work out, of course! The training's coming along quite well. I'm happy with how things are going and the balance I'm able to strike between my training, the XC team's training, and Beth's training. Sunday, I had a time trial of sorts. The prescription was 16 miles with 12 miles at marathon pace. I did the first three miles with Beth and then went off to run my marathon pace. Shooting (hopefully) for a sub-3:00 marathon in Philly, I wanted to hit around 6:45 pace. About 3 miles into it, I thought, "How exactly am I supposed to hold this for 26 miles!!!!" But, sure enough, the 12 miles finished and I ended up around 6:35 pace. Mission accomplished.

I then did 70 minutes on Monday with the XC team and felt pretty good. Today, they had a meet, so it was a rest day for me. By the way, boys & girls both won the double-dual meet against Bethel Park at Kari's alma mater USC (Take that Kari!!!!!!!!!...of course just kidding). Back on Saturday was the first invitational of the year. Our guy took #1 and looked great! The rest of the team looked a little tentative and rusty, but that was their first competition against anybody but themselves. I'm confident based on their workouts, they're going to do better than that between now and October.

The Pirates are just plenty woeful of late. I think they're something like 11-34 since their big trades back in late July. Ouch. They're losing every which way. One day they pitch good but don't score any runs. The next day, the pitching isn't good. The next day it's the relievers. Ugh! You see hope with Andrew McCutchen and Garret Jones. I can't believe Jones is still hitting .300. I became a believer when Beth and I went a couple Saturdays ago. He had three singles (and two walks) and most impressive two of them he just went with the outside pitch and served them into left-center. Most power hitters are really pull-happy and would strike out in that situation. Not Jones. That's why he's still hitting .300. I just don't get why he couldn't get out of AAA with the Twins.

With the Pirates and their plight, I'm getting my playoff fix with their High A affiliate, the Lynchburg Hillcats via internet radio. They won their first round best of 5 series in an exciting game 5 and were anchored by the much beleaguered Bryan Morris. It's fun having a rooting interest in meaningful baseball. I find myself hanging on every at-bat and every pitch. It's fun! Now, they're in the finals against the Salem Red Sox. Salem and Lynchburg are just 90 minutes apart and it's a big rivalry in those parts. Back in the day when Beth and I were at Virginia Tech, we went up with our church group to Salem and saw the (then) Salem Avalanche (Rockies system) take on Lynchburg. The game went like 16 or 17 innings on a Saturday night and we stuck around for the whole thing. Needless to say, we were all a little sleepy the next day at church.

Back to the Lynchburg game and some odds & ends to get ready for school and more enjoying of the beautiful weather! Update: Hillcats win 5-4 with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th!! They're now up 2-0 in the best of 5 series.

The Big 2-0

2009-09-06T18:51:00.012-04:00

My marathon training hit a milestone today--my first 20-miler. I was glad to have Beth with me for the first half to help break it up a little. It went something like this: 4+ miles out and back on our trail, then we did a little less than a mile out and back to check out how the finish of the half marathon goes that we're going to do in October.

Then, Beth took the car back home while I went on my way armed with my Ipod and one final Powerbar Gel. It went pretty well. There's a big uphill right out of the trail for about a mile or so. Then, I went into a county park and did about 5 miles in there (including running the XC course loop for the local HS). Then, a trip down the road through the cemetery and, before you know it, I was at 20 miles. It sure was getting hot for the last hour or so and I was glad I was among the trees and trails for a good bit of it.This brings up a good question though. Which was the tougher of the two: Trying to hang on to Beth's back wheel for 25 miles Saturday or the 20-miler today? I'm going to call it a push because both were REALLY hard and I was beat after both.

In other news, Penn State looked great against Akron for the first half. The O-line gave Clark all day to throw and, in fact, he set career highs in yards and TD's in the process of getting to know his new, tall (and still fast) receivers. Derek Moye from Rochester, PA (same as sprinter Lauryn Williams) is a quick dude for being 6'5". His senior year, he was the AA state champ in the 200 and 400. The secondary is still a question because they didn't really get tested since the D-line (espcially Odrick and Latimore) were in the backfield every play. Heck, Akron didn't even have a first down until the 3rd quarter. Dominating. The second half was a snoozer, but being up 31-0 at halftime works for me.

Last night, we went out to the Pirate game and were not disappointed. Beth's mom gave me a gift card for my birthday and I set it up for tickets and 'loaded' the tickets with $25 for concessions. I'll tell you, $25 at a baseball game sure doesn't go as far as it used to. An order cheesy fries, two large diet cokes, an order of 'Extreme Nachos' and we only had a $1.25 left. That didn't stop us from getting ice cream cones in the 7th inning.

Speaking of the 7th inning, we (while waiting in line for the ice cream) witnessed something that has only happened 43 times before in major league baseball. I was keeping an eye on the TV monitors while in line just to follow the action. If the game had any meaning you better believe I would have been glue to my seat the entire game. But, with it being a September game for the Buccos, I wasn't tuned in to every pitch. I noticed that pitcher Ross Ohlendorf (from the Nady/Marte trade last year) struck out the first player. Then I hear the crowd cheer as he strikes out guy number two. Finally the crowd cheers even louder as Ohlendorf finishes off striking out the side.

What's so impressive about striking out the side? Nothing. It happens all the time. What made this one special is that he did it on ONLY 9 PITCHES. Batter 1: Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3. Batter 2: Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3. Batter 3: Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3. That's pretty cool and something you usually only see in little league when there's this really big kid on the mound or in a fastpitch softball tournament when the hitters are just completely over matched. Pretty cool.

Other highlights include Oliver Onion winning the Pierogie Race (N'at), Ohlendorf only giving up one (unearned) run over 8 innings, and (unfortunately for the Pirates but still cool to see) Albert Pujols coming in and sending a Matt Capps fastball over the centerfield fence for an extra-inning pinch-hit game-winning home-run. The Buccos put guys on base in the 9th and 10th, but couldn't get a run across, losing 2-1.

The night was capped off with a Zambelli Fireworks show. All in all a good night to hang out with my sweetie.

Labor Day picnic tomorrow after morning XC practice then back to the grind on Tuesday.

Game Day

2009-09-05T09:16:00.006-04:00

While baseball is my favorite sport to follow and running is probably my favorite sport to be involved with, there is just something about football that makes the end of summer and the eventual
introduction to winter less noticeable. Friday nights with high school games, Saturdays with Penn State, and Sundays with the Steelers.

This weekend it started. Last night was the opening high school games--mostly non-conference. My high school was going up against Beth's high school and my Spartans romped 40-7. To be fair, I have to state that my school's a big AAAA school and Beth's school is a small AAA school with a little more than half the enrollment of mine (1504 to 831 in the grades 9-11 enrollment from 2007). As one of Beth's fellow alumni of GS pointed out, the rest of the high school season goes like this for our two schools - mine will MAYBE win two more games the rest of the year against schools its size while Beth's will go on to the playoffs. Oh well. Our bigger rivalry is on the XC course anyway!

I also follow football for the district where I live (and used to teach) and also where I currently teach. All the students have now graduated from Highlands, but you always want the local team to do well. We find it funny that the year I was there they weren't too good, but the last three years have been very successful in the playoffs. My current employer's team is looking to rebound from an off year last fall and earned a solid victory against North Hills. I was listening to part of the internet radio broadcast last night and always find it funny how many of the names I can't put a face to and the other handful of names that I've never heard of. That kid actually goes to my school? I do teach there, you know!

But, of the weekend, I think Saturday's my favorite. Penn State's my #2 sports team behind the Pirates (unfortunately). There is so much drama in college football because of how the system is currently set up with no playoff. So, essentially every weekend is a playoff. You can't lose more than one game and hope to make it to the national championship. I still hope they figure out something similar to my proposed playoff blog post from last fall. I'll see how it works out this fall and do an updated post.

I'm getting pumped up for the start of the season. I'll be excited to see how the Lions come out with a revamped O-line and secondary. The receivers should be fun to watch. The lost the highly successful smurfs, but replace them with three guys who are 6' 3" to 6' 6". Darryl Clark and Evan Royster are a year better and more experienced. We shall see how it goes against Akron.....I work with a guy who played QB for Akron back in the late 90's and he was telling me on Friday that if Akron somehow upsets Penn State he's bringing in a Zippy the Kangaroo mascot outfit and wearing it Tuesday. All I know is I witnessed Penn State's only loss to a MAC school when Toledo, led by Chester Taylor (now with Minnesota Vikings), stuck it to Penn State 24-6 in Happy Valley in 2000. I hope it doesn't happen again. Speaking of MAC teams, how did that Bowling Green-Pitt matchup work out to start last year? (Heh, heh, heh)

A game like Virginia Tech-Alabama tonight is going to go a long way towards determining this path. I'm torn on who to root for. Beth and I spent a fall of graduate school down in Blacksburg and loved the atmosphere. It was so much like Penn State except for the Maroon and Orange. However, after our trip a few weeks ago to Tuscaloosa, I was really impressed with the Alabama community and tradition. So, I guess I'll hope for a good game tonight and jump on the bandwagon of the winner to hopefully face Penn State in the national championship. (Oh yeah, I guess Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, and Ohio State may have something to say about that, too).

Steelers don't start until Thursday. They've now won two Super Bowls in the last four years, so I'm not as 'hungry' to follow them as I am the Pirates (last title in 1979) or Penn State (1986). So, just let me know when their season gets started and I'll watch the games.

Off for a ride & run with Beth and then time for some college football before going to the Pirate game tonight (thanks Mom B for the Pirates gift card for my b-day!).

And So It Begins....

2009-08-31T21:45:00.008-04:00

The school year is upon us. I like the Staples or Office Depot/Max where the dad is dancing through the aisles to the tune of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" as the kids are sulking behind him. It always cracks me up.

So, my summer days of getting up, going to 8am cross country practice and being home before lunch are now over. They're replaced with me leaving by 6:15 (if not swimming--then it's 5:15) and home by 6:15-6:30 after XC practice. Not that I mind--I love what I do and having the ability to teach and to coach. It's just an adjustment phase.

After one week, things are going well. I enjoy my classes and always look forward to getting to know the new students. The XC teams are rolling and we're getting ready for our September Invitationals.

Marathon training's going well. I can't believe I'm 6 weeks into already. I also can't believe it's still however many weeks until mid-November for the marathon. Not that it matters--one week at a time. My training consists of jumping in with the XC boys during the week and getting a long run on the weekend. I do run in to some issues like today where I'm coming off an 18-miler on Sunday (and felt GREAT!) and this afternoon the team was doing 3 miles on the road then 3x1600 on the track (6:00, 5:40, 5:20). I did the first 1600, but feared that my hammy may detach if I tried to run faster than 6:00 pace after running so far yesterday. So, I put on my coaching hat for the other two.

Other notes in the past TWO WEEKS of ignoring this darn blog:

*The Pirates lost a whole bunch in a row, followed by winning 7 of 9, followed now by losing 5 in a row. They need a fresh start in February. Looking forward to the September call-ups--especially Jeff Clement. Beth and I are going on Saturday (thanks Mom B for the gift card!!). I'm sure there will be nachos involved

*Penn State starts this weekend. Beth asked me who they played. I hesitated and then shrugged my shoulders. I need to shift gears and get in to football season. A little Zombie Nation Penn State style on YouTube usually does the trick.

*Roxy has taken to hole-digging under our porch. The problem is that the porch's perimeter is lined with a lattice fence. So, el poocho decides to pull away the lattice fencing from the porch and dig up some mice or moles or something. For now, she's on the proverbial 'short leash' in the backyard. No unsupervised times out in the yard.

*She also has identified a skunk that likes to roam up and down our street at night. On several occasions in the area of 1am-4am, she'll start whimpering and going to the windows and nudging me to let me know it's out there. The first night I had trouble figuring out what it was. But, now I know what it is and tell the dog to go back to sleep and there's nothing we can do about it. Nice little intro preview into when we have a baby in the house I suppose.

*Finally, we had a great trip to Alabama. So many great things there:

-Met more people that I previously just knew names of through Beth like Cathy & Kerry Y, Lindsey J, the Minnesota crew (big Jasmine Oenick fans), Chris W, and got to see others again like Kari M (from the evil empire USC--local Pittsburgh joke), Eric L, and Aimee K.

-The University of Alabama campus was beautiful. All the buildings looked so new and it was such a clean campus. Their sports facilities were top-notch and the baseball and softball fields looked like professional stadiums (although the football stadium was a good 20,000+ less than PSU). The people were great, too. I hope we get a chance to go back there.

-We learned the significance of the Elephant mascot. It goes back to the 1930's when a newspaper writer characterized the 'Bama 2nd and 3rd stringers who were dominating another team as a pack of thundering elephants. I guess it stuck, kind of like the Hokies of Virginia Tech.

-One rough part of the weekend was that there were some big thunderstorms Friday afternoon/evening. In fact, it was so much rain the dams/levees(?) were opened downstream, actually causing the water to flow backwards and cause the poor triathletes to swim against the current for 2/3 of the race. I feel bad for the athletes (Beth's time in this Olympic Distance swim was SLOWER than her half IM from August!!!), however it was nearly comical for us spectators on the shore. See diagram below. The straight yellow arrow depicts the path the swimmers SHOULD go. The white curvy boundaries outline where most of the people went. Beth was better than most, but was still sucked up in the current some.

-Yet again, great travel thanks to Southwest Airlines. How do they charge $50 for Beth's bike case and other airlines charge $150? Heck, our plane tickets don't cost that much on Southwest. Our trip from Birmingham to Baltimore was accompanied by Lindsey making the time fly by. Two more trips this year to go for Beth and I--California in late September and Tampa in November. It's fun to travel (especially when you're not the one racing!!!)

Time for bed and hopefully not another two weeks before the next post (and not another Roxy skunk-spotting episode).

Pitching Lines; Looking for ride from Birmingham on Thursday

2009-08-15T16:54:00.004-04:00

I present to you some pitching lines from the last 24 hours:

Linescore A - 1 IP, 7 H, 10 R, 1 K, 3 BB
Linescore B - 2 1/3 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 3 K, 2 BB
Linescore C - 7 1/3 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 K, 1 BB
Linescore D - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 8 K, 3 BB
Linescore E - 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 K, 4 BB

The first four are from the Pirates-Cubs games yesterday and today. Linescore A was the terribly ineffective Charlie Morton (from the Braves in the McLouth deal) who was then replaced by the equally ineffective Linescore B of reliever Chris Bootcheck en route to a 17-2 loss to Jen Harrison's Cubbies yesterday afternoon.

Linescore C was today's hard luck looser (again) Zach Duke with no run support. He was beaten by linescore D, Tom Gorzelanny (traded w/ Grabow at the deadline), and I can't believe he had 8 strikeouts.

The Pirates at the major league level are in some kind of funk right now. Ouch. The minors are doing great, though. Jeff Clement (from Seattle in the Wilson/Snell deal) has 7 HR's in 14 games with an OPS of 1.172 with Indianapolis. 20-year-old Jose Tabata is hitting .333 in his first ten games since getting promoted to AAA. Pedro Alvarez is on fire in AA Altoona, hitting .500 over his last ten games with 23 HR's on the year between Lynchburg and Altoona. Heck, even beleaguered first round pick Danny Moskos chipped in with 8 IP, 2 R, 6K, and has an ERA under 4.00 (although Matt Weiters is hitting .270 in the majors with the Orioles, Dave Littlefield)

Finally, linescore E was actually mine from last night's playoff game. I'll take it after a year layoff. I went in fearing it was going to be more like A or B, except with 10 or so walks. I was able to go 3-up, 3-down in the top of the first and we got 5 gift runs on only 1 hit in the bottom of the first. So, at that point, just had to throw strikes. And, except for 3 walks leading to 3 runs in the 2nd, we didn't give up any other runs and won 11-3. Who knew?

Today, the arm has progressively gotten stiffer and getting tougher to lift above my head, but it's decent. We went swimming this morning and then did a 1:15 bike. Beth's on her taper and she was FLYING with her fresh legs. I was keeping my cadence up over 100 for most of the day just trying to hold on.

The rest of the day involves Pizza, cleaning, and a movie. Tomorrow, I only have a 13 mile run (lighter week) before upping the mileage next week.

Next weekend, we'll be in Alabama for Beth's race in Tuscaloosa for the USAT Age Group National Championships. We're doing our normal deal of me dropping off Beth before school Thursday (in-service starts for us this week; kiddies the following Monday) and then I fly down after school.

Which, by the way, I was looking to see if I could save Beth a one hour (each way) drive next Thursday by getting a ride from the Birmingham airport up to Tuscaloosa. My flight gets in around 8:30pm. Anyone heading down for USAT nationals or know of anyone, let me know. It would be much appreciated.

Happy weekend!

Potential Disaster Delayed (Not Averted) Until Friday

2009-08-11T20:18:00.005-04:00

Softball game rained out tonight (lots of orange and red on the radar that passed over Greensburg)......but it's rescheduled for Friday......AND the other three pitchers are STILL not available. So, I guess I may (pending rain) get my chance for the 2009 pitching debut Friday (for better or worse).

Today, Beth came down and talked to the XC kids about nutrition. It's fun watching her in action and giving all the neat and practical ideas. I remember last year that all the girls had little snack packs with them the next day at practice to take advantage of the '30 minute window' after practice for recovery. Of course the kid's favorite question is, "How can you tell if you're dehydrated?" Hee. Hee. (And, yes, that is a poster of a TI-84 in my classroom on the right by the flag. I am a math teacher after all)

Another great side benefit to Beth coming down to talk to the teams is that it was an excuse to meet up with my cousin for lunch and dessert. Lunch was at Boston Market (nothing noteworthy there), but dessert was at this bakery called 'The Pie Place' and all I have to say is WOW!

The apple tart (mine in the front-center) was AWESOME!!! It was almost as good as my Nana's apple dumplings. My cousin got a black raspberry tart and Beth got this cupcake with lots of frosting and a peanut butter cup on top.

(Did I mention that Beth came down to give a Nutrition Lecture?)

Next softball update Friday...only 20% chance of rain so far.

Oh yeah, my blog has been neglected

2009-08-08T19:27:00.002-04:00

A week and a half later and I'm back. It's funny--I'll begin to compose blogs in my head when I'm out and about, but never get around to writing them. Oh well.

Last weekend, we were out in Meeeeeee-shigan for Beth's race (as the race director described it): The Whirlpool Steelhead Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Presented by Pizza Hut. The trip out Thursday was pretty uneventful. We made it out in about 6.5 hours. Highlights of the trip out included some weird characters in the Boston Market outside of Cleveland, investigating the rank of various country's and state's area and population (who knew Canada was the #2 in the world in area?) and a lively debate on the pronunciation of the "Eau" in 'Eau Claire.' I said it as a long 'o' while Beth was insisting it was more like 'ew' or 'you.' Thanks to the help Facebook's mobile application on our phones and her friends on facebook, we find out I was right within minutes!

We did the standard weekend: drive the course, pre-race swim/bike/run/packet pick-up, and then early rise on race morning. With my marathon training started, my plan was to sneak in my 17 mile long run while Beth did the bike portion of the race. It worked out pretty well, but I sure was tuckered out as I cheered her on during the run. Part of the run is up on the Whirlpool campus (about 3 mi from the finish), so I had to move on back to the finish area after she started her 2nd loop on the run. As I'm running down the back road, I see this oasis of a store called something to the effect of Bob's wine & spirits & groceries. I was just hoping they had something cold as I had exhausted all of my liquids already. Thank goodness they did and I finished off the 32 oz of powerade between there and the finish line (and felt that in my stomach the rest of the afternoon but well worth it!!).

The trip home was a little rougher. We went to go swim in the lake on Sunday, but it was very choppy (in fact, I saw a rip tide warning on the weather channel when we got back to the room). Then, we start our travel towards South Bend, IN and figure we'll get lunch there. College town--lots of eateries. Well, somehow we missed all of them except for some local places that looked shady. So, back on the road and of course (with there being nothing in Eastern Indiana) don't eat for another two hours. Oops. Then, we almost run out of gas (my bad on estimating) as we crossed the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. But, all was good after dinner in Cranberry (Boston Market, DQ, and Krispy Kreme).

This week's been more running for my marathon training and running with the XC team. My big highlight was a 3x1600 day where I went 6:26, 6:10, and 5:50. We start doubles Monday. This should be interesting to see how this fits with my training. Also, I did a swim and long bike with Beth today, so my 18-miler tomorrow should be interesting.

The men's group at our church is singing a 4-part gospel endeavor during the offering tomorrow morning. I'm hoping my legs don't give out on stage after all this training. :)

The other potential disaster this week for me may come in the form of a softball game on Tuesday. I know that I may be pulling a Brett Favre of sorts after declaring my retirement last August, but there's more to the situation than meets the eye. The softball league is down to three teams, so they merged with the Scottdale league to play regular season games. But, our playoffs is just the three teams from Greensburg. Well, FBC made it to the best of three finals. For Tuesday, their #1 pitcher has been in New York for the past two weeks, the #2 pitcher is going to be in Missouri, the #3 pitcher has an injured shoulder, and the #4 pitcher is........I guess me since this is a small church league in western PA.

So, my dad sought permission from the other team to have me come in and pitch on Tuesday in an attempt to be somewhat respectable. The other team probably laughed and said, 'Sure. He hasn't pitched all year. We'd love to do some raking (lots of hitting for non-baseball folks) off of his rusty pitching.'

I don't know what to think. Part of me is excited to give it a try since I really enjoy softball and I've missed it since I haven't played since last August. Another part of me sees this as turning out like John Smoltz with the Red Sox this year (terribly ineffective). Yet another thought is how well my teacher vs. intramural basketball team went back in February (severely twisted ankle). So, maybe it would be best if there is rain on Tuesday. All I know is that my arm will be fresh (maybe not the legs after this weekend) and we'll see what happens. I'll be sure to update on the details and take any pictures of any injured limbs like I did back in February.

The Pirates......ugh. Not going well now at the major league level. But, lots of good parts for the future. 26-year-old Kevin Hart (from the Cubs in the Grabow/Gorzo trade) looked good last night for the Buccos hitting 95 mph. 21-year-old Jose Tabata (from the Yankees in the Nady/Marte trade last year) got promoted to AAA and is raking (.407 AB and 1.022 OPS) in his first two weeks there. 20-year-old Tim Alderson (from the Giants in the Freddy Sanchez trade) pitched six innings of no-hit ball in Altoona last night. 2011 here we come!!!!

The last note on the Pirates is that their much-criticized draft strategy looks like it's working out. First round pick catcher Tony Sanchez is said to have, according to scouts, major-league ready defense right now and is being compared to Yadier Molina. Oh by the way, his bat is playing, too, as he's hitting .321 with a .920 OPS albeit at low A. And, the Pirates were able to sign three young high school arms (and hopefully a fourth) in later rounds, pulling them away from their big-time college commitments. Maybe one of these guys can be the Pirates much-needed anchor of the rotation (like a Tim Lincecum) to complement some of their soft-tossing lefties.

Not Exactly How It Was Drawn Up

2009-07-29T15:59:00.007-04:00

This past weekend was a fun time down in Maryland with my parents and sister. But, like most things in life and sports, didn't necessarily go quite as planned. You hear it all the time in sports where the football team has a plan drawn up on how to win the game and then they have to throw it out when they get down 17-0 in the first quarter. Well, for us mother nature decided to throw a wrench into our plans.

Here was the original plan: Friday game in Frederick, Saturday game in Bowie, Sunday game in Harrisburg. Here's how it went:

My parents and I get down to Frederick and meet up with my sister and husband for dinner at Five Guys Burgers and Fries (great place!). At this point, the sun's still shining. We check on the radar and there's one teeny-tiny green blob that looks like it'll pass through. We get our tickets and get in to the stadium and notice the tarp's still on the field even though it's just a sprinkle. Then, the rain starts.......and doesn't end for another two hours!!! That little blob turned in to a long line of showers. Who knew? I guess this is why I'm not a meteorologist.

Now we move to Saturday. Just two days earlier the forecast for Saturday was 10% chance of precip in the evening. However, after consulting the radar, we made the decision that we didn't want to go the whole way down to Bowie (about an hour or so away) just to turn around and come back because of a rainout. Plus, we had already bought the tickets from Friday night and needed to exchange them (no refunds on baseball tickets). So, Saturday night we were able to catch most of the two seven-inning games with a stop back at sister's house for blueberry pancakes during a one hour delay during the first game (the advantage of living 5 minutes away unlike my 90 minute drives to Altoona). Also, Saturday night I had a chance to catch up with an old buddy named B. He's a fellow PSU IE although he stuck around the whole way through his PhD and is now doing some crazy consulting and data analysis in DC.

So, Sunday morning we were debating if it was worth it to make the attempt up to Harrisburg with more green on the radar. We were torn because we were going to meet great friend J and his family for the game. But, we looked at the radar and the forecast and made the decision to not risk adding on two more hours of driving for another rainout. We ended up going to her church, grabbing lunch at a great place, and then getting home around dinner time.

The other thing that didn't quite go as planned was my first marathon Saturday long run. 16 miles was on the menu and I mapped out this nice 8-mile out and back through downtown to Frederick Community College. Since I have been running with the XC team and also with Beth I somehow already accumulated 47 miles for the week before Saturday (and the plan called for only 44 miles) Oops. I ended up paying for it with about two miles to go. It was humid and nasty (at least a lot more than what we've been used to) and I bonked. I guess I should have taken a second gel. Oh well. Lesson learned and hopefully this weekend's run up in Michigan will go better.

Okay, on to the Pirates. In Frederick, we saw them play Lynchburg (the Pirates' Hi-A affiliate) so I was able to do some "scouting" if you want to call it that. In the first game, the starting pitcher was Jeff Locke (acquired in the McLouth trade). Locke's been having a tough year, but he's a lefty and he's 21 so no need to give up on him yet. Friday night was not much different for him. He reached his organization-imposed 30-pitch limit with two outs (and three runs) in the first inning and was lifted. So, not much to write home about for him.

In the second game, Bryan Morris (from the Bay trade last year and pictured below warming up), is finally healthy this year and pitched six innings and gave up a tough three runs in the 5th inning--his first 'quality start' of the year. He looked solid and was hitting the low 90's and keeping the other team off-balanced.

Offensively, Lynchburg's best players have either been promoted to Altoona (Alvarez, Durham)or are injured (D'Arnaud). So, that left 2008 3rd round pick SS Jordy Mercer (pictured below). He had a rough couple of games, but is still pretty high on the organization's prospect list. Other than that, Jose de Los Santos is only hitting .245 but has 42 steals in 48 attempts. Matt Hague (6' 3" 225) and Eric Huber (6' 6" 230) are hitting pretty well and Alex Presley's only hitting .240 but he seems like he's a solid player.

Finally, no attempts at funnel cake for the weekend. I figured I'd hold off on that.

That's about all I had for the blog and then the big Jack Wilson trade happened this afternoon. I think I'll reserve the opinions and analysis of the trades later this weekend because methinks there's more trades that may be coming over the next few days.

Up next, DiGiorno pizza night and then taking the dog down to Greensburg and getting ready for the big trip to Michigan. We've got the food stops laid out, so we're good to go!

I Have Met My Match

2009-07-17T12:16:00.014-04:00

So my dad and I went up to Altoona to see a game last night and had a blast. Beautiful night and they Curve won 7-1. More details on that to follow, but I need to confess I have found a food that may be my Kryptonite:
That's right, funnel cake. Who would have thought that a food simply made famous at at ballparks, carnivals, fairs and festivals could defeat me? First, some background. I've been getting in some good training this week, so a small appetite was clearly not an issue. I met my dad up in Ebensburg to then go to Altoona and we stopped at Subway for dinner. I had a 6-inch meatball, baked lays, and a drink with a refill (all of which I devoured at a normal rate). When we were at the stadium, I had a small diet coke and a small-ish soft pretzel in the 4th inning.

A couple of innings later, I decided that I needed something sweet and the funnel cake smelled pretty good. I go up and order it and sit back down and start to eat it. About two or three handfuls in I knew I was in trouble. How was I getting full? I rarely get full--even after five or six trips to the Hoss's soup & salad bar or an entire medium Little Caesar's pizza. I figured if I gave it a rest, maybe I would get it back. A half inning later, one bite was all I could muster. I was full. One more try an inning later....nothing. I don't eat funnel cake often, but don't ever recall this reaction to it.

By the end of the game I had only eaten half of the funnel cake (originally about the same size as the above pic I found on the Internet) and threw the rest away. I'm still trying to process how this happened--so disappointing. I hate wasting food that looks and tastes so good. Last night, I kept thinking that this is what normal people must feel after one or two trips to the Hoss's bar or a couple of slices of pizza. :)

In other news, our good friends Ben & Laura got married over the weekend. The wedding was at Heinz Chapel on Pitt's campus and the reception was at the Oakmont Country Club. While Pitt isn't too high on my list in many categories, they did get the architecture thing right with the chapel and the Cathedral of Learning. And, Oakmont CC (hosted the 2007 US Open and next year's Women's US Open) speaks for itself. Here's some pics:

It's crazy to think that Chad & Jen H and Matt run up the Cathedral multiple times for training in the winter!!!

The Heinz Chapel is impressive. I took a picture of the stained glass on the inside, but wasn't too steady on the shot (a little blurry) plus a dude's balding head from the row ahead is in the shot, too.

Oakmont CC looking out from the Clubhouse. Those smoke stacks are in Springdale and I thought it was so cool on the TV coverage a few years ago when they were in the shot since we ride past them.

And, finally, on to the game last night. Yoslan Herrera (aka the Pinata) actually had a good game. Seven shutout innings. He's still sitting in the high 80's on his fastball, but his curve and changeup were on last night and got a lot of swings and misses (5 strikeouts). The exciting part was seeing the top of the Curve lineup in person and the hope that this will arrive to Pittsburgh in two years or less. This was even without Brian Friday who didn't start since he was in the Eastern League All-Star game the night before (and was probably travelling back all day from Trenton, NJ). However, here was last night's top of the order:

2B Jim Negrych: 3 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored. Negrych is a borderline prospect, but the guy can hit. His downside is his defense, but he turned a couple of double plays last night and made a fine running over-the-shoulder catch in shallow right field. We shall see....

CF Gorkys Hernandez: 3 for 5 with a double and RBI. No real web gems, but he is so smooth and quick in the OF and on the bases)

RF Jose Tabata: 2 for 5 and just ripped the ball on both of his singles. He actually also hit in to a triple play in the first inning. Negrych and Hernandez were on and he hit a low line drive to the 2nd baseman. It was just off the dirt and you just couldn't tell if it was going to be a catch or a trap, so the runners had to go. Before you know it, the 2B throws to the SS and then to 1B and we just kind of looked at each other and said, "Hey--that was a triple play."

3B Pedro Alvarez: 3 for 5 with a tape-measure HR to right center field. I thought it was maybe going to hit the roller coaster out there. Maybe he's starting to find his AA groove. He's got a 7 game hit streak and is hitting .351 with an Albert Pujols-like OPS of 1.051 so far in July.

Like I said the other day, if these guys (along with Millege, Lincoln, Gorzelanny, and others at AAA) can continue their progress, 2011 may be the start of having a strong and productive organization that just re-loads like the Minnesota Twins or Oakland A's. On top of this, the Pirates' management *clearly* must have read that blog entry with my hope and suggestions because today the Post-Gazette reported the Pirates are going to talk about *potentially* seeking contract extensions with Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez. It all may be coming together.....

Finally, a few photos from last night from our usual General Admission front row seats just behind first base:

Gorkys Hernandez (3) and Jose Tabata (31)

Pedro Alvarez

Finally, you never know who you're going to see in minor league baseball games. Sometimes there's veterans on injury rehab. For the Harrisburg Senators, we saw Dmitri Young (no kidding, his nickname is 'The Meat Hook') who, according to the Washington Nationals site, had a strained hip and back since April and just started rehabbing on June 27.

I remember him at a game about 10-15 years ago (it may have even been longer--back at Three Rivers Stadium) because I still remember a specific play. He was playing left field in his (sort of) slimmer younger days I think for the Cincinnati Reds. There was some sort of play (a bunt?) where the third baseman, short stop, and pitcher where nowhere near third base and a Pirate was going to second base. What I remember is that he came flying in from left field to cover third base and not allow the Pirate to advance to third. After the play, he then chided the young player about remembering to cover his base. For some reason I always remember that hustle on his part and then his 'mentoring' of the younger player. Isn't it funny what your brain remembers?

Have a great weekend of training or whatever else is on your schedule and WATCH OUT FOR THE FUNNEL CAKE!!!!

Heat, Running, Baseball, ...

2009-07-15T19:50:00.006-04:00

Another week goes by! Where does the time go? It's going to be the start of school before I know it.

*Tomorrow's the last day of the summer program I've been doing for the last four weeks. It's been fun, but I am reminded why I DON'T work with elementary kids. They are way too squirrelly for me. Working with them for a week on fun stuff like "Math in Sports" isn't bad. I couldn't imagine going 5 days/week for a whole school year with them.

*Beth and I have been having some rear-mounted water bottle cage issues over the last few weeks. Hers is really loose and wobbly after I stripped the one bolt and mine tend to pop out on our rides (causing the faster of us to get a tiny bit impatient while I go and retrieve it). However, after some research, trial and error, and online purchases, I think we've got the issue resolved. For Beth she got a beaker concepts mount with 'gorilla grip' cages. We're hoping this new design is more stable and holds bottles better. From my amateur engineering perspective (my background before becoming a math teacher), I feel this new design and how it's mounted to the seat rails will make it much less prone to wiggling. For me, I found a good one at Big Bang Bike Shop. They always have exactly what we need! Below is a picture of Beth's setup:

*The All-Star game was pretty fun. I made it to the 8th inning before I fell asleep. This was actually one of the shorter ones, only 2 hours and 31 minutes (the shortest since 1988). The problem was that it didn't start until almost 9pm here in the east.

Part of the pre-game festivities was the first pitch by President Obama. Politically, I'm not a big fan of some of his policies and ideas but I don't mind his fresh approach to the administration. However, this is not a political blog. What I want to critique was his appearance on the mound for the pitch. I thought it was neat that he stayed true to his favorite team, the Chicago White Sox (much to Jen Harrison's and Cubs fans' chagrin) by wearing a Sox jacket on the mound. However, his pitch left a lot to be desired. He lolli-popped it in there and didn't even make it to the place. Albert Pujols had to scooch up a few feet to catch it before it hit the ground.

If you want to see a President throw a REAL first pitch, how about President Bush in Yankee Stadium the weekend after the September 11th attacks. He went out there and fired a strike. I vaguely remembered the actual pitch, so I looked it up on YouTube and he sure did fire a strike nice and fast. THAT's how you show you're the leader of the free world!

In President Obama's defense, there have been MUCH worse. Here's a video from ESPN on worst first pitches:

*Speaking of the All-Star game, neither Freddy Sanchez or Zach Duke made it in to the game. I can't really criticize that, though. It was a one-run game and you need to keep some people back. Sanchez makes sense because he could play 2nd or 3rd base. Duke was an injury replacement, so he should have been one of the last people in. Regardless, the current Pirates may be in for a long 2nd half.

*So, I continue to look to the future. My dad and I are going up to Altoona Thursday to see another Curve game. I'm excited to see Pedro Alvarez in person. I want to see if he's as terrible as advertised defensively and if the ball really does jump off his bat. We shall see...

Next weekend, my dad and I are going down to Frederick, MD to meet up with my sister and catch a couple of baseball games. Here's the schedule for the weekend:
Friday night: Frederick (Baltimore A) vs Lynchburg (Pirates A)
Saturday night: Bowie (Baltimore AA) vs Reading (Phillies AA)
Sunday afternoon: Harrisburg (Washington AA) vs Trenton (Yankees AA)

I can't wait and I'm hoping for the weather to cooperate.

*Speaking of weather, it finally got hot for a day! Beth and I did a road tempo workout. It sure was rough with the humidity! I'm getting in the swing of things with my official marathon training. The big day for the Philly Marathon is not until November 21, but it's good to start the 'official' training. I got in 12 miles Friday, 40 mile brick Saturday, 13 miles Sunday, off Monday, swim Tuesday, and crazy humid run today. I think I should be okay for week one of the plan. Most of my plan will be catered around the boys' xc team at school because that seemed to be pretty successful for me the last two falls. We shall see!

Upswing in Training.....Buccos at halfway point

2009-07-08T19:53:00.003-04:00

The training's back on the rise this past week. My 'official' training for the Philly marathon in November begins in another week or two, but I should be ready for it to start.

Saturday, I 'only' did 50 miles on the bike while Beth did some crazy bike workout during her 70 or 80 mile ride. Yikes! I'm such a slacker....As a side note, last week I flatted when Beth and I were out on a ride. She was (of course) a little ahead of me. I yelled 'BEEEEEEETH!!' but she didn't hear me and kept riding. I texted her to let her know and she figured it out. Of course, at this point it starts POURING. However, after 20 or 30 minutes, I managed to change my flat and pump it back up with a CO2 cartridge. I had never used a CO2 cartridge (or changed a flat) before and all I could keep thinking about was Chrissy Wellington's cartridge discharging at Kona before she had it in the tire and she was stranded until a good Samaritan gave her another one. Fortunately, it worked out for me.

Sunday, we ran 14 miles on the Butler-Freeport trail. Monday, I did an easy 4 miles before my summer program. I took Tuesday off. Today Beth and I did this crazy interval run with a 12 minute 'hard' part. Ouch. Later this week, I'm going to do a run with a former student who now runs in college and was looking for someone to run 10 miles with. We'll see how that goes.

This weekend's a big wedding. Ben (who sometimes trains with Beth and I) is getting married. It's another chance for us to go back to the Oakmont Country Club (home of several US Opens) and hopefully Beth won't be asked to take her jean jacket out to the car again!

This past weekend brought about the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. I'm impressed with what they eat! But, I think my favorite part of the telecast is the introductions and hearing what their various 'resumes' entail for these competitors in the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Things like beef brisket, rice, asparagus, pulled pork, and ramen noodles. Where do they get these? I would like to some day enter either a pizza eating contest or a Hoss's eating contest.

Believe it or not, the Pirates are now past the halfway point of their season. Where did that go? After losing this afternoon, they are now 9 games under .500. Not great but they are building a solid foundation for the future. I'm still not all that hopeful for 2010, but I think 2011 could be the start of something special where the minor league system is ready to supply a constant stream of major-league talent. Here's my hopeful lineup for April 2011

1. McCutchen CF
2. Sanchez 2B (please sign him to an extension--nobody's ready for a few years)
3. Jose Tabata LF
4. Pedro Alvarez 1B (too many errors at 3B plus they have Andy LaRoche)
5. Ryan Doumit RF
6. Andy LaRoche 3B
7. Jason Jaramillo C (what a pickup he was!!!)
8. Jack Wilson SS (see Freddy Sanchez)

Bench: Moss, Millege, Pearce, G Jones (what an impression he's making!), Friday, Bixler, Diaz, T Sanchez, G Hernandez, Walker, .... some of these guys have to work out

Pitchers: Maholm, Morton, Duke, Lincoln, Snell (maybe), Ohlendorf, Gorzelanny,....

I'm hopefull........

11 Days Later.....

2009-07-02T08:38:00.011-04:00

Since I last blogged...

*I finished up the first two one-week sessions of the summer elementary enrichment program (SEEP). My session is entitled Math in Sports where we try to intertwine math and sports for kids in grades 4-7. We do things like keep track of fantasy baseball scores, calculate stats (BA, OBP, SLUG, OPS, ERA, WHIP), look at patterns and formations (like in football), and several other things depending on the weather and the available facilities. I definitely think that working with elementary kids is not my strongest suit, but it's not too bad for four days at a time.

*I went to a Pirate game with one of the other track coaches last Thursday and had a heck of a time. We had great seats and were entertained to a walk-off single by rookie phenom Andrew McCutchen. We also narrowly avoided some crazy thunderstorms that didn't show up downtown until I was just about back to the car. Here's a few photos of the game:

This second photo was neat because Andrew McCutchen was up with a 3-2 count and two outs and the bases were loaded--meaning everybody is in motion as the pitch was coming to the plate. McCutchen ended up walking to tie the game.

*Upon returning home Thursday night around 11pm, it turns out that Beth's computer wouldn't turn on and her front race wheel wouldn't hold air. Not good when we were leaving for Philly in 10 hours. We get up Friday morning and devise a plan where I took the laptop to a licensed warranty repair place on the Parkway west (weird experience in itself based on the person who helped out), then swing down to West Mifflin to Big Bang Bikes for the tire and then meet Beth and Roxy in Greensburg to then go to Philly. The result: Laptop's battery just had a hiccup and it only took 10 minutes to fix, the great folks at Big Bang were able to replace the valve stem seal on the tire and it worked out fine. So, we left for Philly only about 1 or 2 hours later than we planned. Not bad considering the potential catastrophe of Beth losing all of her business data on her computer and not having a race wheel for Philly!!

*We get to Philly and eat dinner and go over to the packet pickup where we found Roxy's long lost parent/sibling/cousin??? You decide:

I didn't realize until we left that the dog moved its head while I was taking the picture, so it ended up a little fuzzy--just adds to the mystery. I didn't want to bother the owner for a second picture--they probably thought I was weird enough already. But, it was an exact replica of Roxy down to the white on the legs and tail. Maybe the only difference was that this dog was a little heavier. Other than that, it could have been exactly Roxy!

*Oh yeah, there were races in Philly, too. Maija competed in and won her age group in the Philly sprint on Saturday. On Sunday, Beth ended up 2nd overall after a tough duel with Bri (3rd) down the stretch in the run. Some person from Maryland won overall, so Beth earned her Best of the US spot for the 2nd year in a row. That will be out in California at the end of September.

Beth & Maija after Maija's race Saturday

The start of Beth's swim wave heading down the Schuylkill. I had a neat angle from atop a bridge that I crossed to get back to the transition area from the swim start.

About 200m from the finish, Bri is just ahead of Beth. Beth snuck past Bri near the finish line.

Now we're getting ready for a big 4th of July weekend of....relaxing and spending time with family. Also, happy Canada Day to our friends north of the border yesterday. I always remember back to our one year about 10-15 years ago when my family took a vacation to Canada and we saw a Toronto Blue Jays game on Canada Day. It was neat to see the team wear red. Here's their uniforms from this year:

Now THIS was a Summer Saturday

2009-06-20T17:56:00.004-04:00

It started with a 4:30 wake-up to get rolling and out the door for Erie by 5:20. The rain had started already (along with Thunder and Lightning) and I could only think that if we drive the WHOLE WAY up to Erie (2.5 hrs) and this swim race gets cancelled, I'm going to be bummed.

So, we progress up Interstate 79 northbound to Erie with wipers on high half the way and my concerns grow. We get up to the Presque Isle Park and take the shuttle to the check-in. Oh great--there goes some more lightning over the harbor. Bummer! But, the rain (at least the lightning) let up and the swim across the bay got started with only about a 15 minute delay. I was soaked, but glad that Beth was able to get in her open water swim.

We get back to the car and change into running clothes and do a 10 mile run. The whole run on Presque Isle was so pretty and it just sprinkled the whole time--no torrential downpours as we had all morning.

We get back to the car, change, and get on the road--IT'S HOSS'S TIME!!!! For those of you who don't know, Hoss's is a western PA chain that offers steak/burger products with this awesome salad/bread/dessert bar. I may have had my best performance EVER today. I went out at an aggressive pace, but (to Beth's surprise) I maintained the pace throughout the entire meal. No letup today. It must be the increased training I've done this week.

Anyway, here's the carnage (rivaling the All-you-can-eat seats performance from last summer):

Trip 1: Salad, two pieces of garlic bread, and 1 slice of cinnamon bread, small slice of pizza (something I haven't seen at a Hoss's before)
Trip 2: Taco, mini-burger, mac & cheese, bowl of fruit (cantaloupe, apple slices, jello, ...)
Main entree: Sliced steak sandwich & fries (when the waitress delivered the entree she asked if I was going to need a box. I just laughed)
Trip 3: Dessert concoction consisting of brownie, ice cream, peanut butter sauce, hot fudge, and whipped cream
Trip 4: For good measure, an apple crisp thing and an oatmeal raisin cookie

I never really hit the wall. I was kind of surprised. In fact, I still feel decent.

Then, back on the road. I was getting a little sleepy and we were running a little low on gas, so we stopped in Grove City where they have an outlet mall. I tell Beth, "Let's just go into the Nike Outlet Store to get out and stretch our legs and wake me up."

Next thing you know, we went not only to Nike, but to Reebok, Gap, Aeropostale, Old Navy, Adidas, American Eagle, Haggar, and Nike again. I ended up getting new jeans (my old ones had holes in undesirable places), dress khaki pants (they're wearing out from school), and khaki shorts (what I wear all summer). Beth ended up with this purple hoody from Nike and shorts from Old Navy. Total bill for all that--$79. That's right, we're thrifty.

Now we're home and finally having a chance to get all of the crust and filth off of us from this morning (hoping that changing clothes and putting on deodorant in Erie was good enough for Hoss's and the outlets!!!)

I was telling Beth that this is about as relaxing of a weekend day as I've had in a while now that the stress of grading and planning for school is off the shoulders for a few months. Sure, I've got the summer elementary program for the next four weeks, but it's only 3 hours a day and it's only 6-12 kids and there's no intense lesson planning or grading. I love it!!!

Big ride planned for tomorrow. Look out bike computer!!!

In-between jobs

2009-06-18T20:35:00.002-04:00

Thanks to all who pass along birthday wishes on Facebook & email. It's been another fun year.

For my birthday I slept in until 8am since I'm in my week between the end of school and the summer elementary camp. Might as well take advantage of it while I can.

Speaking of birthdays, Beth and I are so sneaky (a.k.a. cheap) when it comes to finding birthday deals. If you sign up your email for different places, you can get free stuff. Here's our list of items that we took advantage this week (and most that Beth used last month):

Monday - Qdoba (free burrito) and Cold Stone Creamery (free 'like it' with one topping)
Wednesday - Dad came up and took us out to dinner (mom was working in NJ)
Today - Red Robin - free burger and small sundae
Saturday - Hoss's - $5 off entree

With being done with school, my training has picked up this week. Tuesday we did this crazy running tempo run. Something like 15 min warm-up and then 9 min hard, 4 min hard, 3x2 min hard, 7 min hard, 3x2 min hard. Whew!!!! The killer was the hills that we ended up going up for the 7 min hard part. I've also done swimming and biking.

With the biking, Beth had an extra bike computer that I put on my bike and used for the first time this week. Wow, the possibilities of analyzing the data that I get--especially if I start using a heart rate monitor. As I was on the bike, I kept on looking down at my cadence and average speed and current speed. It's a good thing I was back on country roads without cars because I was weaving back and forth as I kept looking at the bike computer.

That's about it from here. Hope the storms in Pittsburgh yesterday didn't affect people too much.

One good workout deserves another

2009-06-14T20:31:00.003-04:00

Today, Beth and I did 12.5 miles on the trail to start our day. I was beat after that!

In other news, the Pirates won again today and are only 3 games under .500 and only 4 games out of first place (albeit at the same time tied for 5th place). We'll see what happens when they go on the road this week.

This week is should be a nice week. We've got one more official day of school tomorrow for a clerical day. It's a day where I finalize grades and clean up my room of all the piles of papers strewn about over the past 9 months. I need to go back in to school on Friday to get my rosters for the summer elementary program I do over the next four weeks. Other than that, some relaxing and getting some tasks done around the house because the summer elementary program rolls into cross country training which rolls into the start of school in August!

Finally, great job to everybody who did the Eagleman 70.3 tri down in Maryland today. Chad & Jen, Jeremy & Jocelyn, Jen H, Lindsay, and a bunch of others. Jeremy and Lindsay earned Kona slots and Jen H won her age group. Awesome job!!!

Have a good week all!

Get me some butter....

2009-06-13T20:43:00.003-04:00

...because I'm TOAST!!

I went with Beth today on her workouts. Since I got my bike back in April, I've gained an even better appreciation for her training. Ouch!!!

It started this morning with a 3 hour ride with Beth (and Ben came up, too). This is after she already did 30 miles as a warm up. Then, a 30 minute run right off the bike. Then, a swim workout ladder similar to the one from a couple of weekends ago. After all of that work, we went to Subway for a $5 footlong. I'm beat and again even further respect all of her training she does day in and day out.

In other news, the Pens won the Stanley Cup!!! My playoff beard was getting pretty itchy. I forgot that the playoffs took two months to complete. I even trimmed the beard twice along the way. This picture was from Thursday.

The Pirates have done some interesting things in the past few weeks. I've already established my supportive opinion on the McLouth trade. However, the new management team may have made the first move I may disagree with regarding their draft strategy. Instead of going for a college arm like Aaron Crow (the guy I wanted) or Alex White, they went with a college catcher who was 'signable' with the strategy of spending less on the first round than last year, but spending the same amount as last year on the draft (about $9 million) over many picks with the focus on high schoolers who have scholarships to big time college baseball programs. If it works and they sign a lot of these guys, I'll agree with their strategy. However, I believe that they may only end up signing a few guys and this may backfire (creating more public backlash). I'll get back to you on August 15th.